so i went into town.    stopped to get the mail from our neighborhood  box unit by the "main" Polvadera road.  16 keyed boxes.  there was a letter in there from the United States Postal Service.  a questionaire.  and notification that there will be a meeting at Midway Elementary on the 5th of  October at 5 pm to address concerns re the closing of the Polvadera Post Office.

so, before i cleaned her bookcases thoroughly (her brother and sister are coming at the end of the week and she would like them to take any books they might want, they in their late 70's)  we read the letter from the United States Postal Service aloud and talked about it.  about Why.   it made totally NO sense to her so we ate chicken enchiladas and apple tart that i'd brought and i cleaned those afore mentioned book cases.  She is hoping that they will want the 1960's edition of Encyclopedia Britanica.  because as she says,  things are still relavent.

home.  and i worked outside.  pulling, cutting, axing, raking, dragging, wheelbarrowing,  feeling.  as Sun approached the rim i checked day 4 of the pots of Mexican Elderberry

007

the one that showed the most changes so far, interestingly enough, is the aluminum pot005

the copper and cast iron are more so going.  the leaves have not begun to deteriorate at all.  less heat,  cool nights.   watching.

and while i was pulling, hauling, ….look             not too many of these, ever, but i love their presence.   milkweed.009
 
 
 

 

 

 

Posted in

47 responses to “a saturday”

  1. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Milkweed, cloth spilling out of pots: alchemy, both of nature and woman made, perfect for this gathering time. This gathering time is festival time here in TN and music will ring out in the valleys, meadows and mountains. Today it was a Celtic Festival, next week, a blue grass festival down by the river; feet and body will move in joy and dance as they did today, as they will next week…gather cloth, gather dye materials, gather pots, gather music and in so doing, you gather joy.

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  2. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    Gather. a beautiful word, yes?
    Gather. Gather joy. gather feelings, gather sustanance
    for the soul. gather memory. gather Heart for
    continuing.
    Gather.
    yes. You Dance, Marti. dance for me, there in that
    country of Tennessee.

    Like

  3. Nancy Avatar

    Well said Marti, well said. Gathering – a word with so much heart. Kick up your heals once for me 🙂

    Like

  4. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    Nancy…be ware. she is a DANCER. you will feel it all
    the way to California. really. this one LOVES to dance.

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  5. Nancy Avatar

    Grace that 2nd paragraph is so powerful. And define relevant, eh?

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  6. Nancy Avatar

    Yea! I love that! Right on!

    Like

  7. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    i know. i knooooow. relevant.
    she used to irritate me. BIG ego. way more than there is
    no need to remember now. now, we have these long slow
    days of being relevant to one another, to looking for
    relevance in small things. in looking for relevance in ourselves, in our connection, me and her. our connection to anything else we can connect to because her ability to
    make those connections is dimming by the minute. and i
    find that in that dimming, my tenderness for her grows.
    which says something to me about my snottiness. thinking.

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  8. Nancy Avatar

    Grace this is just so good. I am thinking maybe it grows because as time has gone bye an bye – your relationship has grown, even if it is on your end more than hers. With understanding comes softness and compassion. I think this is innate to human nature: to have our hearts soften for those who need more care and protection. Like babies and elders. I think this is so.

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  9. peggy Avatar

    Grace, oh your photos — well I’ll just say that there is something about the light there in New Mexico. If I didn’t know you were there, I’d still know. Beautiful. And so is the account of your time spent with the other person…

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  10. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    yes. that light. that light in New Mex.
    it shines even on
    people.
    the “other person”. yes. we have had our moments over
    the years. crunchy sometimes.
    i tend i guess to be a little hard on people. i hold
    myself
    responsible.
    and i hold others responsible.
    but then, with her, it’s all just floating in some
    netherworld
    and so
    i love the word, Nancy,
    relevance
    what
    is relevant
    when all is said and done?????
    our relationship teaches me.

    Like

  11. handstories Avatar

    that photo of the pots- stunning
    the dying of the post office- i am afraid. handwritten letters and opening the mailbox, library books, cursive, researching with encyclopedias….i am so sad for what we are losing.

    Like

  12. Nancy Avatar

    Grace-yes our relationships teach us, don’t they? I have such high expectations for myself…and others. That doesn’t always work so well. Yes when it’s all said and done…
    Cindy- EXACTLY!!!!! Make me so sad and outdated feeling. I just did 2 feathers for Jude with some of those thoughts in mind. Even my guy said how my mom would hate the demise of cursive writing. Hers was beautiful.

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  13. handstories Avatar

    my mom has pretty handwriting, too, but can’t spell worth beans. i can spell, but the writing is not so pretty, always got an “S-” (below satisfactory) for cursive & now admire the lovely script of others. You should’ve seen me trying to teach the 3rd graders… we’re still teaching cursive at my school, writing letters and thank you notes, having library research time…i hope i don’t live to see the day when it’s over.

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  14. nance Avatar

    tenderness and compassion. i’m glad to hear that. you have been with her a long time. alzheimers… a tragedy… very difficult for the family. i have experienced it. glad you are softening.

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  15. nance Avatar

    your post office is closing??? where yo know the woman who works there and she knows you… and calles when you have a package??? no. you will miss that part of your community. in a way it makes you more remote.
    but the pots of fabric… wow i love how they look. its good to see how it is at your dye station. thank you for sharing.
    and then ending with softness. that is so fine. the milk pods have a soft satiny interior after their sweet little downy fluffs blow away.

    Like

  16. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    What an intimate, beautiful post and reply correspondences, like women whispering their truths–Grace, how will you receive the next package is the post office closes? What is the nearest post then to you?

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  17. KaiteM. Avatar

    grace this post is so full of soul.
    i also did pulling, cutting, dragging, more cutting, digging, raking, sowing, planting and wheelbarrowing yesterday, plus mowing in the paddock adjoining, but i didn’t think to blog it. today i bundled a bunch of euc leaves and flowers and buds in the steamer. we live so far apart but do so many similar things.
    the milkweed looks like magic spiders to me, wild wooly spiders.

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  18. Nancy Avatar

    My mom spelled well enough for both of us! I am a horrible speller 😦

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  19. Nancy Avatar

    Grace- could the post office closing be the universe starting to distance you from this lovely place? Just a thought…as you have been preparing to separate and move on.

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  20. Deb G Avatar

    I’m wondering if you thought of the possible link between aluminum and Alzheimer’s? “Interestingly enough?” 🙂 I added some more elderberry leaves to my aluminum pot this weekend.
    The mail… I have memories of everyone going down to the dock to meet the plane that brought the mail “once very two weeks, weather permitting” when I was a child and we lived in South Eastern Alaska. Was talking with my parents last night about how computers have changed our world. Like everything else, some good and some bad things to it, but probably no going back unless the power gets turned off…

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  21. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    yes. softening is good. and you would know my edges.

    Like

  22. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    i thought about this a lot. about why things are becoming what they are. and i really think that we are now dealing
    with things in a much more honest way. the illusions are
    useless, and on her part, no longer create-able. so it’s
    just more honest. and so good that it happened.

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  23. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    i regret the loss of these things too. but they are a
    direct result of this amazing thing of internet. how
    can you balance, at least a little somehow. i have
    been thinking of beginning to write Julian letters. he
    is only 2, well, next month, but he knows where his mailbox is at the end of the driveway…
    the encyclopedia, the library. this is a great loss.
    i remember when i went to the big library in Albuquerque
    after having lived in the true outlands for some years
    and finding
    no card catalog
    and then shortly after i moved here, which would be the
    Socorro library, they took it away there.
    i LOVE card catalogs. i have one in my mind.
    i love and remember how they smell.

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  24. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    my dad had us sit hours on end with the Palmer Method.

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  25. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    well…we need to think of ways to circumvent things
    like this.

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  26. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    yes. the wonderful little post office. and Debi and
    Paula the postpersons. yup. but i can accept this.
    there is a post office in the next little community over.
    i don’t know if they are closing that one too? but the
    Socorro post office is 10 miles. close enough.
    but there are areas quite nearby that it will be a
    heartbreak. Catron county, ranchers. the Alamo
    Navajo Nation just recently managed to get their own
    post office. for these people it will be maybe 50 miles one way to pick up mail. not to mention it being the
    hub of information and gossip.
    in our Polvadera, three women will lose their jobs. and
    these are the only three jobs here.

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  27. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    it won’t be till after the holidays, i’m guessing..but
    we’ll see. I’ll find out.
    i will i guess have a post office box in Socorro. when
    you get a package even here, they put a little notice in
    your box. would be the same there. it’s only 10 miles.
    and it’s also where i go for my work and everything else.
    there’s nothing here but the
    well, post office

    Like

  28. handstories Avatar

    oh, yes, the card catalogs….i MISS them too, terribly. and the pockets with cards that said what the book was & was replaced with the due date card when you checked it out. I’ll have to do a post of my “crime” at the library yesterday. trying to hold onto a bit of this.
    when my nephew was 2, I started sending him postcards all the time, he loved the pictures and I could write quick messages often- he kept them in a scrapbook…he’s 27 now, wonder if he still has it?

    Like

  29. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    Kaite, i have always noticed the similarities. i think
    we would fit easily and well into each others lives.
    xo

    Like

  30. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    actually, i did….Alz and aluminum. my mom cooked our
    sunday dinner all my life in her warever alum. pot. eee.
    thank you for the down to the dock story.
    one of my most loved movies is the Postman…Kevin Kostner
    (sorry Michelle NYC) (i don’t like him either much in any
    other movie) (but i love this MOVIE) (not so much KK except
    he’s perfect for the part)

    Like

  31. Nancy Avatar
  32. Nancy Avatar

    Is that a method for cursive? Does not ring a bell. My mom’s writing looked the same, perfect, until the last months of her life. You can look at it as a gauge to see where she was heading. Looking back anyway.

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  33. Deb G Avatar

    Well…my Dad always brings up the fact that my brothers and I were around lead growing up and it didn’t damage us. I keep telling him, how does he know? 🙂
    I haven’t seen the Postman, I’ll need to at some point. One of my favorite movies, but not because of Kevin Kostner, is Bull Durham. Was just thinking of it tonight.

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  34. Nancy Avatar

    Yes the card catalogs and the paper pockets and…Oooo…love!
    I think you can order them online (the pockets)…but would they smell the same? I can still see where my childhood library kept the “B is for Betsy” books were kept…the pages soft and rounded corners after years of love by so many children…
    I almost cried when that library closed and I didn’t get to go in one last time. I can still see it in my heart.
    And the card catalogs…I remember going there to do reports for school and being so excited when I was old enough to use the Adult section.
    I need to do a post on this as well. My friend, Ed, who passed away – his wife has old card catalogs from UCLA and has all of her books cataloged! So cool 🙂
    And yes Grace…write to him!! My kids were ‘pen pals’ with my parents when they (my kids) were young. Found some of those letters after my mom died-what a kick! My son wrote a dozen letters asking my dad about when he played baseball or was in the Navy!! You can see where his interest was 🙂

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  35. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    i have library crimes.
    postcards are a great idea for Julian. i send my friend
    in Michigan’s dad postcards. he checks his mailbox on
    Sunday’s “cause you never know”.

    Like

  36. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    yeah, jeez. who knows what great things you could be
    knitting if it wasn’t for all that lead……
    i have seen SO FEW movies in the last uhhh, maybe 20 or
    more years. i don’t know how it is that i saw this one,
    a video on the TV, but i just really love it. it’s a
    little violent in parts, but i actually love those parts
    too. it’s about when there’s nothing much of this
    civilization left. but shakespere.

    Like

  37. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    yes. my granddaughter has said that. she’s watching
    my penmanship.
    the Palmer method. probably can google it.

    Like

  38. handstories Avatar

    i have many crimes. maybe we should have a true confession blog?
    and “you never DO know” do you? i love it when i forget to get the mail on sat. & find it on sunday.

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  39. handstories Avatar

    “b is for besty” carolyn hayward, yes! do you remember when her baby sister was born & they named her Star? I LOVED that, maybe that’s why my boys’ middle names are Blue & Moon?

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  40. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    yup. google
    palmer method of penmanship.
    it’s there.
    in the old days, we would have had to wait till we could
    go to the library.
    now…it’s a google away.
    good? bad? don’t know. i guess just IS.
    i remember my friend Jane coming to visit me. from Alaska.
    i guess that would be, uhhhh, maybe about 8 years ago?
    anyway, she dragged me to the library in town and made me
    use one of the computers there. she taught me how. but
    i was so anxious using the mouse that i couldn’t control
    it at all. it went everywhere. but after she’d left,
    i bought my first computer and screen for $200. and
    look at me now.

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  41. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    i have crimes too. they’ll all come out here, sooner or
    later.
    nope. you never know.

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  42. KaiteM. Avatar

    let me know when you want to move to Aus!

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  43. Nancy Avatar

    Haha I had forgotten that part. Maybe it’s time for a reread. I’ve looked for the old soft-paged ones on e-bay before. I so love the feel of those pages.

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  44. Nancy Avatar

    Oh Grace that is so sweet. I love getting mail, good mail. 🙂
    My parents used to send us postcards when they went away. Good memories.

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  45. Nancy Avatar

    Just watched that recently! You and my guy love it! I like it a lot too 🙂

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  46. Nancy Avatar

    Lookin’ good Grace…lookin’ good! I remember the first times with the mouse…yes it was so hard to control! Now I’m on a mac laptop w/ the touch pad thingy- which I had to totally get used to! HA

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